Over-60s can travel for free anywhere in London with their Oyster photocard. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty

Older London residents can travel free on most of the capital's public transport network thanks to the 60-plus Oyster photocard introduced in November 2012, a far more generous travel concession than the rest of England.

Yet many Londoners are unaware of this little-publicised perk which gives free travel at any time of the day on all Transport for London services including the buses, Underground and Docklands Light Railway as well as most off-peak local rail services plus discounts on some river boat fares and the Emirates Air Line cable car.

The scheme can save up to £2,288 a year for those who regularly travel into the centre of the capital by the underground from zone 6 stations such as Bromley, Upminster or Uxbridge.

Currently, the London Councils' Freedom Pass offers similar travel perks, but residents can't qualify for that until they are older, as eligibility for the pass is linked to the state pension age. The same is true for residents in other council travel pass schemes around the country – which goes to show how valuable the free 60+ Oyster is for Londoners aged 60 to 67.

You can apply for the 60-plus Oyster on the TfL website at tfl.gov.uk if your main home is in a London borough.

In the rest of England, you are entitled to free off-peak travel (9.30am-11pm on weekdays and any time at weekends) on local buses – but only at state pension age. Use the calculator at gov.uk/calculate-state-pension to find out when you will qualify. If, for example, you were born on 15 March 1954 and are turning 60 next week, you are not eligible until 6 September 2019 when you are 65. If you were born a year later, you will have to wait until 15 March 2021.

Some local authorities in England offer other local travel concessions. In the West Midlands, for example, eligible residents get free off-peak travel on the bus, rail and Metro in the Network West Midland area, while in West Yorkshire they get half-fare on off-peak train travel within West Yorkshire.

In Wales, local authorities provide free travel at any time of day on registered local bus services for residents age 60-plus.

In Scotland, the National Entitlement Card allows residents aged 60-plus to travel free on most local and national bus services. Some Scottish local authority schemes also entitle them to free rail travel.

In Northern Ireland residents of this age are entitled to free travel on bus and railway journeys. Translink, and some other, smaller, transport operators also offer half-fare travel for children and young people up until 30 June following their 16th birthday.

All areas of the UK offer free or concessionary travel on buses, and sometimes trains, to people with a disability regardless of their age.

No more cash on the buses

Buses in London will go "cashless" from mid-summer – meaning most passengers will need to pay with either a pay-as-you-go Oyster card, a prepaid Travelcard or a contactless payment card.

TfL says cash fares make up only 1% bus journeys, down from around 25% a decade ago, and paying by one of these methods is by far the cheapest option, costing £1.45 per journey compared with £2.40 if you pay in cash.

But never having the fallback option of using cash – if, say, you forget your Oyster or lose a concessionary ticket – does mean travellers will need to be more organised and prepare ahead.

Visitors are best advised to get a Visitor Oyster card and load it with pay-as-you-go credit. It can be reused, never expires, and gives you the cheapest way of paying for single journeys on London buses, tubes, trams, DLR, London Overground and most National Rail services in London.